Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!amlovell
From: amlovell@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Anthony M Lovell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: 10 Best/Worst for Computing in 1988
Keywords: some for all time!
Message-ID: <5066@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 31 Dec 88 00:43:31 GMT
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 60

Responding to the example I saw set a bit ago, I'll play Dvorak and list
some raves and list some peeves.  Differences between what you and I
observe can be explained by guessing that A) you are wrong, or B) I have
no idea what product you have in mind.  I'm sure there are droves of
goodies I've never run across.

Things that make you GLAD you own a computer:

Borland Compilers - Pascal 3 & 4 are nice.  So is TC 2.0, though I
haven'tsunk my teeth in.  If you don't like the polish to these
products, you are trying to be difficult.  TP 4.0 in particular seems to
compile your code before you ask it to.

Turbo Pascal 3.0 - the editor.  I seldom use v3.0 for any compilation
unless it's pretty small stuff, but all my miscellaneous editting needs
are met by this little 35K gem.  It is fast, and does what you EXPECT.
The limitations are line length, no word wrap, and file size of 64K.
But I seem to find that speed and predictability are hard to find
combined in one simple package (see Word Flaw below)

ls.exe - forget who wrote this program which is free for non-commercial
use.  The name is NOT Buerg, I know.  Life on a harddisk with just dir
is unthinkable and this is the answer.

USENET boards - Where else can you get 50 people from Sweden to
Australia involved in a huge campaign game based on Battleship?  Only
here.  And it has Ray Frank, too.

INTEL INBOARD386/PC - a $650 doodad that moves your 4.77MHz 8088 machine
into the stratosphere of 16MHz 386 computing - with a free Megabyte
thrown in!  With free disk cache software (and sometimes even bundled
with Windows 386!), everyone can be a superuser.

So it's just 5.  I'll think of more the moment I send this...


       Bad things that make you yearn for the age of steam.

Word Perfect - This thing has caused me more headaches.  The best
software can be used by new users immediately, yet devotional use
provides key insights to multiply your time spent with it.  Has the most
idiotic function-key based design I ever saw.  Nothing ever once came
out on the laser printer correctly the first time, thanks to the WYGIPDR
theories it embodies.  (That's What You Get is Pretty Damn Random)  Even
on the theoretical level, it is poorly implemented - to move a block of
text, press several function keys and it vanishes from where it was.
THEN, go to where you want it; the text you cut is nowhere to be seen -
it exists in some ether state.  Then, press another unrelated jumble of
function keys to bring it back.  Take the disk down to the printer and get 
a completely unexpected result.  Sheesh.

Statgraphics and GrafTalk - the slowest software ever put on this
planet.  We called the latter one GuessTalk due to its inability to give
you what you wanted on the first try.

That's it.  Go ahead, flame me about Word Perfect - you are dead wrong
and God knows it.

-- 
amlovell@phoenix.princeton.edu     ...since 1963.